Budget Mono-Black Control

I was looking for a deck that ran Arena, and would probably depend entirely on Phyrexian Arena to win games. I found one as I was looking through Chris Romeo's articles. You can read the last in the long chain here: From Right Field: Big Bottom (Smell the Glove Even More, Part III) I found that this deck was perfect to test whatever decks I were going to build. If it couldn't stand up to this budget deck, then it probably wouldn't stand against far more powerful ones either. I didn't like the final version of his deck, because it was probably far more powerful, far more reliable and of course, far better than the second last version, which I did build.

The deck itself uses eight rares: 4 Phyrexian Arena and 4 Night of Souls' Betrayal as what I would call the deck's power base. Being a budget deck, it only run two win conditions: Genju of the Fens and Consume Spirit.

Yam knows very well how it is like to be beaten down by a Genju of the Fens, since he played the deck. I'd actually tested the deck far before I brought it to play against him to see if I could tune the deck even more. Unfortunately, I'd have to say Chris Romeo did most certainly hit the nail with the build. I don't think I see any budget way too improve it against a casual budget deck.

I'd have to say the deck runs completely off Phyrexian Arena. It's close to impossible to win faster decks if you don't play a Phyrexian Arena. Night of Souls' Betrayal also shined against any sort of deck. On its own, it can completely wreck weenie strategies as well as a Meloku. The deck runs loads of removal, meaning it shows how card advantage will eventually win you the game. By drawing double what your opponent is drawing, you can handle practically every creature in his hand with one of yours, leading to many one-for-one trades in the long run.

The kind of removal is, of course, what you can find: Kiku's Shadow, Hideous Laughter, Cruel Edict, Darkblast and so on. In the long run, your opponent will run out of cards, and your hand will still be full. This eventually leads to a situation where your ever looked down upon Genju shows its stripes and begins to takes large chunks out of your opponent's life count.

(I'm out of ideas for now to write on a little longer. I'll probably come back and edit this to add more. :D)

What I've Pulled From the Few Boosters I've Bought

(This is a crappy filler post. Do not read. This is the kind of post I delete or 'privatise' so you never read such crap. It's an example of what comes out of writer's block.) I won't lie. I buy loads of boosters. In fact, I've actually lost track of how much I actually spent on Ravnica boosters. I remember telling Yam that it was around RM100. To be honest, this is more of the initial investment. I spend far more in total than I could ever imagine or remember. I believe I've actually opened crazy amounts, probably closing in on about one box (and maybe a half or more) worth of Ravnica. However, I find it unlikely since I don't think I have the funds to open that many. It's probably because I open, sell and open some more. Probably.

In my loads (which aren't really that many) of boosters, I've opened one Birds of Paradise, one foil Overgrown Tomb, one Glimpse the Unthinkable, two Loxodon Hierarchs, three Dark Confidants, three Circu, Dimir Lobotomist, two Grave-Shell Scarab, three Lightning Helixes(uncommon), three Necroplasm, three Putrefy(uncommon), two Telling Time, three Firemane Angel, one Hour of Reckoning, two Ursapine, one Hunted Troll, one Nullstone Gargoyle, one Grozoth, one Hunted Dragon, one Privileged Position, one Hunted Lammasu and one Dimir Cutpurse.

As you can see, I have my fair share of horrible rares (if you don't know which is considered horrible, just imagine hypothetically). :D I also have a few so horrible, I can't remember their names. :D But in those cases, I'd have to say the uncommon paid for them. :D If you were to calculate, it does constitute to around one booster box worth, but of course, a booster box wouldn't contain three of so many rare cards. ><

Singles are probably the best way to go hunting for cheap rares like Hex, Grozoth, and so on. :D Who doesn't like to see how crazy you can push things with Grozoth?

Card Advantage

When you are playing a card game, card advantage always comes into play. This isn't so much when you're playing Hecatomb where you're drawing two cards a turn, but it might be different when it comes to ordinary ones where you play with one draw per turn. Since I'm most familiar with Magic, so I'll be talking about card advantage in Magic. (I'll be using a number of pictures, most of which I have taken from Magiccards.info, but the copyrights belong to Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro, I think. I thank Imageshack for their bandwidth. :D)

In Magic, the idea is to win. The main reasons why card prices can escalate is because of card quality. Card advantage is difficult to gain in Magic since card avdantage can literally crack the game. This leads us to the easier way of winning a game: play better spells than your opponent. You win a Magic game by having card quality advantage of sheer card advantage over your opponent. Your 4 mana to cast 4/4 creature will obviously stomp all over his army of 1/1s. He would be spending tons of cards to stop your 4/4. The quality of your single card beats the quality of his by several times. This leads to card advantage in the long run. Card quality is important, but sometimes card advantage can win the day. If your opponent had 4 1/1s, you would think twice before attacking with your 4/4. If your opponent had 20 1/1s, he has practically won the game already.

In Magic, card advantage is difficult to gain. There are some obvious examples, such as the following:

If you hit five mana on turn 6, they do the exact same thing at slightly different costs (if you played Arena on turn 3). Phyrexian Arena is obviously better for most people - it's a long-term investment that'll serve you up till you run out of life. Tidings is also good. It'll give you card advantage nearly immediately and it doesn't need you to wait for for you to recoup your investment. 5 mana for 3 cards (4 cards minus 1 which is the Tidings) worth of advantage.

Why is card advantage important? Card advantage gives you power. It's a simple way to reason. The more cards you have, the more power you have. You can play more lands than your opponent ever could. You could play more creatures than your opponent could handle. Your sheer card advantage can trump his card quality advantage. So what if your opponent has a 4/4 on each turn if you could come up with more and more 1/1s to stop him with.

Card advantage gives you the ability to control the game. If you could trade every single card with your opponent on a one-for-one basis into the graveyard, the one that draws more cards will be the winner. There is no need to skimp on blocking his creatures with your own, or destroying that creature with the single cards that you have since you're going to win the race anyway.

Then, I show you one of the cards that define card advantage:

One card that can destroy any other creature on the board. Depending on how many creatures your opponent has, this one card can produce more card advantage than any card drawing can get you. You want proof? Here's one that generates so much card advantage you have to give up all the cards you're holding in your hand. :D